Why Argentina and Not China?

Since the girls are enrolled in the Mandarin immersion program at Woodstock elementary, and since I speak some Mandarin from my days in Asia, everyone wonders why the heck we aren’t going to China. All legitimate wondering.

At the end of the day, we were concerned about two things that ultimately ruled out China: the exchange rate and pollution (not listed in order of importance).

Having worked in a heavy industry in the region back in the late eighties and early nineties, I got to witness the ravages of pollution first hand. The breadth is astonishing. China depends upon coal fired plants for electricity, which dumps a lot of mercury into the air, which then gets into the food supply. Air quality is low and asthma and other lung related illnesses are high. I worry about heavy metals and other industrial pollutants that are dumped into the water supply that then get integrated into the food chain. (I remember meeting with one building owner in an industrial park who advised me to dump all of our manufacturing waste in a creek behind the facility…yikes.) Those kind of pollutants have a big effect on small growing bodies, so we decided to stay in the Americas and head south.

We also would like our dollar to go as far as possible, which makes China less of an option.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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6 Responses to “Why Argentina and Not China?”

  1. Elsie Nannette Blondet-Valdez August 6th, 2008 at 6:00 am

    Michele:

    We are also moving to Argentina, just a bit later than you guys, more like January-February 2009.

    I have a blog about the move and Argentina in general and I would love to link your blog in the Blog Roll. Let me know if it is OK.

    Thanks,
    Nannette

  2. lindsey March 9th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

    i’d love to know what you’re doing about water in BsAs. i’m moving there in 2 weeks, and i’m bringing along the pur faucet-mounted filter that we use at home(chicago). adequate, you think? unnecessary? thanks!

  3. Michele March 9th, 2009 at 3:05 pm

    Hello!

    We use tap water for drinking, cooking, and washing dishes without a problem. I tend to buy bottled water to drink as a general rule because I don’t particularly like the taste of the tap water, not because it isn’t safe. The Pur faucet mounted filter might help with taste so you don’t have to buy bottled water. I haven’t heard or read anything about the water supply here being particularly unsafe, but that and a nickel won’t buy you anything!

  4. lindsey March 10th, 2009 at 12:14 pm

    thanks so much! good to hear! looking forward to the move! best of luck :)

  5. Tom Key February 5th, 2010 at 6:22 am

    Hello, we are from Houston, Texas and we are moving to Cordoba, Argentina. In fact my wife and two kids ae leaving on Tuesday the 9th of Feb.I will be following in May. We also love Argentina and are looking foward to our new adventure.

  6. Michele February 7th, 2010 at 10:35 pm

    Tom! Wow, congratulations. Are You moving for work or for a sabbatical? You will enjoy the country and the people! Make sure you travel a lot — it’s a beautiful beautiful place with so much to see.

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